Yuri Somov (1918-2004) was born and worked in Moscow. Graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute, faculty of I.V.Zholtovsky. As an architect he participated in the designing of the high-rise building of the Moscow State University. He is the author of its Assembly Hall and its gala interiors. His projects of exhibition halls of the USSR have been realized abroad at the World’s Fairs. He was the winner of a number of architectural competitions. His books on composition in different fields of techniques and interior are widely known to experts.

Yuri Somov protected the master's thesis on Art Criticism.

Diversity of themes used in the works of Yuri Somov may astonish anyone: romantic Russian landscapes, and ancient European harbours with fluttering flags of caravels, and old Russian lonely island monasteries, and small streets of the medieval cities of  Europe, and, certainly, historical Moscow to which long years of his creative life were devoted. Dramatization of each subject is the principal approach of the artist to his works.